A spectral measurement device includes: an optical band-pass filter section that has first to n-th wavelengths (n is an integer of 2 or more) having a predetermined wavelength width as a spectral band thereof; a correction operation section that corrects a reception signal based on an output optical signal from the optical band-pass filter section; and a signal processing section that executes predetermined signal processing based on the reception signal corrected by the correction operation section that corrects the reception signal based on the change in the spectral distribution of the reception signal.

Claim:

What is claimed is:

1. A method for measuring a spectral distribution using a spectral measurement device having an optical band-pass filter section, a light receiving section receiving lightfrom the optical band-pass filter section and a correction operation section performing an operation to correct a reception signal obtained from the light receiving section, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving light of first to n-thwavelengths, wherein n is an integer of 3 or more, by the light receiving section; (b) calculating a second derivative of a characteristic line representing the spectral distribution of the reception signals of the light of first to n-th wavelengths bythe correction operation section; and (c) decreasing the reception signal when the second derivative is positive and increasing the reception signal when the second derivative is negative by the correction operation section.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, a correction value used for the decreasing and increasing in step (c) is based on a magnitude of an absolute value of the second derivative.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a reception light intensity of a first spectral band is p1, a reception light intensity of a second spectral band adjacent to the first spectral band is p2, and a reception light intensity of athird spectral band adjacent to the second spectral band is p3, a second derivative Q1 is calculated through an operation based on Q1=(p1+p3-2p2) and calculates a correction value used for correcting the reception light intensity p2 of the secondspectral band by subtracting a product of the calculated second derivative Q1 and a correction coefficient k1, k1 is a real number, by the correction operation section in step (b).

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising; when, among the first to n-th wavelengths, an m-th wavelength band, wherein 1.ltoreq.m.ltoreq.n and m is an integer, is an interest wavelength band, and a k-th wavelength band, whereink.noteq.m, 1.ltoreq.k.ltoreq.n, and k is an integer, other than the m-th wavelength band is non-interest wavelength band, the optical band-pass filter section functions as an m-th band-pass filter corresponding to the m-th wavelength band and alsofunctions as a k-th band-pass filter corresponding to the k-th wavelength band, a step of estimating a noise component for each wavelength band of the k-th wavelength band included in an interest reception signal obtained by the light receiving sectionreceiving transmission light or reflection light of the m-th band-pass filter corresponding to the m-th wavelength band by the correction operation section being done after step (a) and before step (b), wherein the estimating includes multiplying eachwavelength band of the k-wavelength band included in the interest reception signal by a transmittance or a reflectance in the k-th wavelength band of the m-th band pass filter, and; subtracting a sum of the estimated noise component for each wavelengthband from the interest reception signal by the correction operation section after step (a) and before step (b).

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein when the interest reception signal obtained by the light receiving section receiving the transmission light or reflection light of the m-th band-pass filter is Sm, all of the reception signal obtainedby the light receiving section receiving the transmission light or reflection light of the k-th band-pass filter is Sk, a transmittance or a reflectance in the k-th wavelength band of the m-th band-pass filter is P(m,k), a transmittance or a reflectancein the k-th wavelength band of the k-th band-pass filter is P(k,k), and the estimated noise component for each wavelength band of the k-th wavelength band included in the interest reception signal Sm is N(m,k), wherein the N(m,k) is estimated by anoperation based on Formula (1) below, N(m,k)=Sk{P(m,k)/P(k,k)} (1), and a sum .SIGMA.N (m,k) of the estimated noise component N(m,k) for each wavelength band is calculated and the corrected reception signal Smc is obtained by an operation based onFormula (2) below, Smc=Sm-.SIGMA.N(m,k) (2).

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein when a sum of transmittance or reflectance of all of the wavelength bands of the m-th band-pass filter is EQm(1.about.n), a sum of transmittance or reflectance of all of the wavelength bands of thek-th band-pass filter is EQk(1.about.n), and a correction coefficient for correcting a difference in the transmittance properties or reflectance properties between filters is R(=.SIGMA.Qm(1.about.n)/.SIGMA.Qk(1.about.n)), the estimated noise componentfor each wavelength band of the k-th wavelength band included in the interest reception signal Sm is estimated by an operation based on Formula (3) below, N(m,k)=Sk{P(m,k)/P(k,k)}R (3).